Paltalk Moves Webcam Chats To The Web

Webcam chat service Paltalk is finally opening up its service on the Web. It's testing a new beta site called PaltalkExpress, which uses Adobe's (ADBE) Flash plugin to serve up real-time, multi-person video chats.

If it works well, this is a smart upgrade from Paltalk's old system, which didn't work on Apple (AAPL) Macs, and required people to download and install special software to chat. Now that most Mac computers come with a built-in Webcam, it's a no-brainer to extend support to them. And because joining a Webcam chat community might seem a bit... creepy at first, we think the ready-to-go Web app will encourage more people to give Paltalk a shot.

Another bonus: The new Flash-based system will be embeddable when it launches next month, so Web publishers can put a Paltalk-powered video chat room on their own site.